Sociology 305: Demography Spring 2018 Class Time: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 3:30-4:50pm Class Location: University Hall 102

Professor Christine Percheski Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Monday & Tuesday 2-3pm, 1812 Chicago Avenue, Rm. 208

Course Teaching Assistant (TA):

Course Overview This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the field of studies, also known as demography. Demography covers all of the factors related to changes in the size and characteristics of a population. The topics that demographers study are as diverse as health disparities in the United States, the impact of AIDS on in Africa, migration patterns from Latin America, the reasons why sex-selective abortions in Asia occur, and the implications of the current low birthrates in Europe.

An understanding of demography and is crucial to professionals in a diversity of careers and industries. For example, planners, environmental engineers, and health policy experts all utilize demographic expertise about , migration patterns, and health and longevity in decisions on issues such as how many schools a city should build, how much water a will need over twenty years, and what type of initiatives would best serve a community. Professionals in business also rely on demographic knowledge to make decisions about which markets to enter, what products are needed, and how to best market their products.

In this course, we will explore the key concepts and measures used to study population dynamics. These demographic “building blocks” include techniques for describing population characteristics and for understanding population dynamics. We will also discuss the centrality of population dynamics to social, political, and economic issues around the globe.

Course Goals and Objectives Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to 1) describe the key features of the first and second demographic transitions; 2) use key concepts related to population structures (including population age structure, sex composition, population size, population growth rates, etc.) to describe a population; 3) understand how mortality and have changed over the past two centuries and vary across countries; 4) explain how demography is intertwined with and economic inequalities; 5) interpret tables and figures with demographic data; and 6) identify how demographic changes in the U.S. and around the globe are relevant to contemporary debates.

This course will emphasize understanding quantitative data relevant to the course topics, but no prior courses or calculus background is required. By the end of the course, students will be expected to know how to read and describe figures and graphs, and how to perform simple calculations using demographic techniques. These skills will be taught in the course, and no advanced math skills are needed.

All readings listed on the syllabus are either in the textbook or are available in the course packet. The textbook is Demography: The Study of Human Population, 4th edition. 2015. Authors: Lundquist, Anderton, and Yaukey. ISBN: 978-1-4786-1306-0. The non-textbook readings are comprised of original scholarly articles on specialized topics and recent reports on issues of particular importance. 1

Students should note that some articles include policy suggestions about the subject matter. Students are welcome to disagree with the opinions or policy prescriptions in these articles and should note that these opinions do not necessarily represent the professor’s opinions.

Course Requirements Students are expected to do all required reading and engage deeply with the subject material. Grades will be calculated as follows: Participation 15% Homework assignments 25% Project 10% Weekly quizzes 15% Final exam 35%

Participation: Students are expected to actively participate in class. Active participation includes volunteering to answer questions, asking questions, or contributing to the “In the News” segment of class. Students who rarely or never speak up in class will earn a failing grade for this component of the class.

Weekly Quizzes: Weekly quizzes provide students with an opportunity to gauge their learning throughout the term. Quizzes will be given during scheduled class time, and students who miss a quiz will earn a grade of zero. The lowest two quiz scores will be dropped.

Final Exam: The final exam will take place as scheduled by the Registrar on Thursday, June 14 from 3-5pm. The exam will include short answers, graphs and figures to interpret, and longer essay questions. A review guide will be provided to help you study. All University policies regarding final exams apply.

Homework Assignments: A paper copy of each assignment is due in class (unless otherwise specified). Additionally, assignments must be uploaded onto Canvas. For all homework assignments, please include your name, the course number, and the date in the top left corner. The homework assignments will be graded as complete, incomplete, or missing. Students will not lose points for incorrect answers or mistakes. Late assignments will be accepted the day after the original due date (as a paper copy in my faculty mailbox in 1810 Chicago Ave.) with a late penalty. If you are seriously ill or have a emergency, I am happy to work out alternate due dates for homework assignments.

Project: Students will be asked to compile selected parts of the homework assignments from throughout the term, correct their mistakes, and submit these along with a short summary write-up for a final grade. (More detailed directions will be distributed.) The final project must be submitted by the start of the final exam.

Written work is expected to be grammatically correct and without typos. Students are encouraged to seek and give help to classmates. Students are welcome to discuss the assignments and work cooperatively provided that they write up their answers independently AND include a note at the end of the assignment acknowledging that they worked with a classmate. Example: “Note: I worked with classmate Jose Hernandez on the age pyramid problems.”

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Core Topics and Reading Assignments

April 5, Class 1: Introduction to Demography 1. Vogel, G. 2011. “Regional Snapshots.” Science 333: 555-557. 2. Video clip produced by Science (2011): http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/population/pop-intro-movie.xhtml

April 10, Class 2: of the Human Population 1. Livi-Bacci, M. 2007. A Concise History of (4th edition). London: Blackwell Press, pages 1-9, 20-48. 2. TEXTBOOK, pages 6-11 & 47-53 (stop at Classifying Countries)

April 12, Class 3: Understanding Population Growth Quiz #1 1. Malthus, T. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Chapters 2, 4, & 5. 2. TEXTBOOK, pages 53-65 (stop at Problems of a Changing World Distribution)

April 17, Class 4: Global Population Size and Environmental Impacts Assignment #1 due 1. Simon, J. 1980. "Resources, Population, and Environment: An Oversupply of False Bad News." Science 208:1431-6. 2. Hardin, G. 1968. “The Tragedy of the .” Science 162: 1243-8. 3. Ostrom, E., et al. 1999. “Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges.” Science 284: 278-82.

April 19, Class 5: Environmental Impacts (cont’d) & Introduction to Key Demographic Concepts Quiz #2 1. Bradshaw, C. J., & Brook, B. W. (2014). Human population reduction is not a quick fix for environmental problems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(46), 16610- 16615. 2. Crist, E., Mora, C., & Engelman, R. (2017). The interaction of human population, food production, and protection. Science, 356(6335), 260-264. 3. Video clip produced by Science (2011): http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/population/3336042-malakoff-v1.xhtml 4. Video clip produced by Population Reference Bureau: http://www.prb.org/Multimedia/Video/2015/national-transfer-accounts.aspx

April 24, Class 6: Key Demographic Concepts and Sources of Demographic Data Assignment #2 due. 1. TEXTBOOK, pages 94-114 2. Video clip produced by the Bureau: http://www.census.gov/2010census/mediacenter/history/evolution-census-anderson.php 3. Cai, Y. 2013. “’s New Demographic Reality: Learning from the 2010 Census.” Population and Development Review 39(3): 371-396.

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April 26: No Class. Quiz #3 on Canvas during class time

May 1, Class 7: Introduction to Fertility Assignment #3 due 1. TEXTBOOK, pages 227-231 (stop at Recent Fertility Declines) & 235-256 (stop at Gestation Variables) 2. Video clip from Science (2011): http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/population/3336042-kaiser-v1.xhtml

May 3: Class 8: The Second Quiz #4 1. Lesthaeghe, R. 2010. “The Unfolding Story of the Second Demographic Transition.” Population and Development Review 36(2): 211-17 (Note: this is an excerpt). 2. McLanahan, S. 2004. “Diverging Destinies: How Children are Faring under the Second Demographic Transition.” Demography 41(4): 607-627.

May 8, Class 9: Future Fertility Patterns Assignment #4 due 1. Morgan, S. 2003. “Is low fertility a twenty-first-century demographic crisis?” Demography 40(4):589-603. 2. Aksan, A. 2014. “Effects of Childhood Mortality and Morbidity on the Fertility Transition in sub- Saharan Africa.” Population and Development Review 40(2): 311-329. 3. Gerland, P., et al. 2014. “World Population Stabilization Unlikely this Century.” Science 346: 234- 237.

May 10, Class 10: Sex-Selective Abortion and Reproduction Quiz #5 1. Ebenstein, A. and E. Sharygin. 2009. “The Consequences of the ‘Missing Girls’ of China.” World Bank Economic Review 23(3): 399-425. 2. Wang, F. and C. Yong. “China’s One Child Policy at 30.” The Brookings , 9/24/10 3. Jayachandran, S. and R. Pande. “Son Preference Drives ’s High Malnutrition Rates.” https://voxeu.org/article/son-preference-and-indian-child-malnutrition

May 15, Class 11: Introduction to Mortality 1. TEXTBOOK, pages 145-163 (stop at Sex Differences in Mortality) 2. Excerpt from Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks.

May 17, Class 12: Global Burden of Disease Assignment #5 due 1. Bloom, D. and D. Canning. 2000. “The Health and Wealth of Nations.” Science 287: 1207-9. 2. TEXTBOOK, pages 189-200 (stop at Morbidity Problems) 3. Murray et al. 2013. “The State of US Health, 1990-2010: Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Factors.” JAMA 310(6): 591-606. 4. Bendavid, E. 2014. “Changes in Child Mortality over Time Across the Wealth Gradient in Less Developed Countries.” Pediatrics 134(6): e1551-1559.

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May 22, Class 13: Health Disparities Quiz #6 1. Adler, N., et al., 1994. “Socioeconomic Status and Health: The Challenge of the Gradient.” American Psychologist 49(1): 15-24. 2. Williams, D. and P. Jackson. 2005. “Social Sources of Racial Disparities in Health.” Health Affairs 24(2): 325-34. 3. Miller, G. E., Chen, E., & Parker, K. J. 2011. “Psychological stress in childhood and susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging: moving toward a model of behavioral and biological mechanisms.” Psychological Bulletin 137(6): 959. 4. Thornton, R. L., Glover, C. M., Cené, C. W., Glik, D. C., Henderson, J. A., & Williams, D. R. 2016. “Evaluating strategies for reducing health disparities by addressing the social determinants of health.” Health Affairs 35(8): 1416-1423.

May 24, Class 14: Changes in Assignment #6 due 1. Oeppen, J. and J. Vaupel. 2002. “Broken limits to life expectancy.” Science 296: 1029-31. 2. Carnes, Olshansky, and Hayflick. 2013. “Can Human Biology Allow Most of Us to Become Centenarians?” Journals of : Biological Sciences 68 (2): 136-142. 3. Olshansky, J., et al. 2005. “A potential decline in life expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century.” The New England Journal of Medicine 352(11):1138-45. 4. Preston, S. 2005. “Deadweight? The Influence of Obesity on Longevity.” The New England Journal of Medicine 352(11): 1135-37. 5. Preston et al. 2014. “Projecting the Effect of Changes in Smoking and Obesity on Future Life Expectancy in the United States.” Demography 51: 27-49.

May 29, Class 15: Introduction to Migration and International Migration Quiz #7 1. TEXTBOOK, pages 325-344 (stop at Internal Migration) & 348-353 (stop at Migration Problems)

May 31, Class 16: Immigration to the U.S. Assignment #7 due 1. TEXTBOOK, pages 360-366 2. Massey, D. S., Pren, K. A., & Durand, J. 2016. “Why border enforcement backfired. American Journal of ” 121(5): 1557-1600.

June 5, Class 17: Migration within the U.S. Quiz #8 1. Hall, P. and S. Ruggles. 2004. “ ‘Restless in the Midst of their Prosperity’: New Evidence on the Internal Migration of Americans, 1850-2000.” The Journal of American History. 2. Excerpt from Wilkerson, Isabel. 2010. The Warmth of Other Suns.

June 7, Final Exam Review (Optional)

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Additional Information:

Respectful Dialogue: Some of the topics that we discuss in this course may challenge closely-held personal, moral, or political beliefs, or may be controversial. I will do my best to create an intellectually vibrant and respectful atmosphere. I request that you contribute to this by acknowledging the diversity of opinions related to the course material, treating others with respect and civility, and honestly communicating with me and your classmates if you feel that we are not treating a particular perspective with respect. Please make me aware of any concerns that you may have, and I will do my best to address them.

Additionally, students are requested to turn off their CELLPHONES and not use their COMPUTERS for non-course related purposes during class (i.e. no surfing the web or email!). If you have to leave early or arrive late, please do so quietly!

Communication: The best way to contact me is through email. Please include an informative subject line such as “Soc 305 Assignment Question” and sign your full name.

Academic Integrity: Northwestern has strict policies regarding plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. Examples of academic dishonesty include passing off other people’s work as your own, cheating on exams or other in-class assignments, collaborating with other students on assignments where collaboration is prohibited, and not giving others credit for their ideas or words. Additionally, students are not allowed to reuse more than a paragraph of writing from work for another class without my permission. Respecting the academic integrity of yourself and others means always citing sources correctly and never contributing to or benefiting from any activities that further academic dishonesty (e.g. selling or buying term papers, contributing exam copies to exam banks, etc.). If you have any questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, please ask me.

Students should be advised that they may be required to submit their work electronically in addition to or in place of printed form. All student work may be analyzed electronically for violations of the university's academic integrity policy and may also be included in a database for the purpose of testing for plagiarized content. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated! All suspected violations of academic integrity will be handled according to University policy.

Accommodations: Per university policy, any student with a documented need for accommodation is requested to speak to AccessibleNU and to me as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first two weeks of class). All discussions will remain confidential.

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